Hausa Film: Compatible or Incompatible with Islam and the Hausa Culture?

[Muhsin]

Oct. 11, 2013

by Muhammad Muhsin Ibrahim; @muhsin234

INTRODUCTION

The world can no longer escape being 'exposed' through the media—print and non-print. It is no longer what it used to be. Globalization, now at its peak, is tied with media like a computer to its screen. Hence wars are fought through the media; election campaigns conducted there; products advertised; and there is virtually no place uncovered by the media. Films, as vital machinery used by the media, are accorded with ample efficacy, for via this much propaganda—for good or bad—of the so-called world superpowers were said to have, and are still being, sold to, and devoured by, people. This is possible for, almost everybody can understand the language of film and its universal appeal; film is endowed with the communicative power that can mobilize people to frenzy or lull them with dreams and illusions. This is very evident especially in Hausa-land where both its teeming youth and elderly so much used to watch Indian films many years back when the technique of subtitle was probably not known for a possible comprehensible English translation, and yet identified with the characters, laugh at their antics and feel sad for their agony. Indian film still enjoys patronage among the people, though not as before.

Therefore, the impact of film is overwhelming. But such as it is, filmmakers in Kano as well as other states in the Muslim northern states of Nigeria are often in ideological clash with the larger society, government and religious institutions. The filmmakers are accused of misrepresenting and attacking socio-cultural and religious value systems of Hausa people (hereinafter referred to as Hausawa), the major ethnic group in the region. Hausawa are strict followers of Islam, the religion, which, in a greater proportion, conforms with their culture; thus, both the culture and Islam frown at the film, especially such as

Read more: http://immuhsin.blogspot.in/2013/10/9-hausa-film-compatible-or-incompatible.html